SANFORD, Fla. — For Thomas Cummings, there’s only been one downside to his past two months at the Rescue Outreach Mission of Central Florida: a recent series of coronavirus outbreaks.  

“This is like family. They’re all great people around here,” Cummings said, referencing Rescue Outreach Mission staff. “They’re helping me get a home, get back on my feet.”

But rising coronavirus case rates in Florida make Cummings worry about the health and safety of his 5-year-old daughter, Briella, who is staying with him at the shelter in Sanford. Twenty residents there recently tested positive for COVID-19 in two separate outbreaks, the shelter confirmed to Spectrum News 13 on Thursday.

Mike Towers, chairman of the shelter’s board of the directors, praised local health officials’ quick response to the initial outbreak of 13 positive cases among residents. 

“The response time that they had was absolutely uncanny,” Towers said. “They were geared up for this.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will continue to reimburse state and local governments for temporarily housing shelter residents who test positive for COVID-19, the Biden administration announced Tuesday. It’s an extension of the original directive President Joe Biden gave FEMA the day after he assumed office.

“If someone tests positive, obviously we want to move them out of a congregate setting as quickly as possible,” said Seminole County Emergency Manager Alan Harris, who described Biden’s extension of the order as “a fantastic idea.”

“It is the way to prevent the spread of this virus in congregate living where people have no other place to go,” Harris said.

Seminole County has used the FEMA program to pay for temporary, isolated housing for 68 people during the coronavirus pandemic. The funding provides a safe recovery zone for people staying in congregate living facilities, including homeless shelters and drug treatment centers.

“We have been the busiest over the last three weeks that we have been in a long time,” Harris said.

Twelve people in Seminole County are currently being temporarily housed under the program.

In addition to Rescue Outreach Mission, the local residential care program Teen Challenge recently experienced a coronavirus outbreak, Harris said. But FEMA funding made the situation much more manageable, he added.

“Both [shelters] had small outbreaks throughout the period of this, and both of them utilized the program,” Harris said. “They were able to get individuals out of their facilities and thereby not create a huge outbreak.”

No Rescue Outreach Mission residents who were recently quarantined for COVID-19 died, Harris confirmed. Still, Cummings can’t help but fear for the safety of his daughter, given their confined current living situation. 

“The chances of dying [from COVID-19] are pretty severe,” Cummings said. “I’m pretty much always scared now.”

For now, he’s focused on helping Briella acclimate to her first few days of school – and getting the second dose of his COVID-19 vaccine. 

Molly Duerig is a Report for America corps member who is covering affordable housing for Spectrum News 13. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.